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News Briefs 17-02-2010

By Gregon

A big happy birthday to my beautiful little girl for tomorrow. May you wake up to balloons, presents and fairy cakes (and I know for a fact you will)…

Thanks Lee and Blair.

Quote of the Day:

Scientific revolutions, almost by definition, defy common sense. If all our common-sense notions about the universe were correct, then science would have solved the secrets of the universe thousands of years ago. The purpose of science is to peel back the layer of the appearance of objects to reveal their underlying na…ture. In fact, if appearance and essence were the same thing, there would be no need for science.

Michio Kaku

Greg
Editor
Greg is the owner-editor of The Daily Grail, as well as the author of a number of books including Stop Worrying, There Probably is an Afterlife.
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6 Comments

  2. Re Autism Theory
    I can see where the blog people are coming from, and it has some merit to it, however, I still believe that autism is actually a form of Myopia of the mind.

    As a person who has severe myopia of the eyes, I know it is possible to see small things as huge, and huge things as small or even invisible. Whilst lenses of various kinds can amend the discrepancy in the eyes, no-one has yet found a means of correcting the huge distortions in some people’s minds.

    My son can be extremely sensitive, emotionally, but other times he acts as if he has no emotional response to situations at all. Could it be due to his mind seeing some situations as huge when they should be small, and other instances as extremely small or even invisible to him? This would allow him to demonstrate all the traits that have been attributed to autism.

    I would add that the way political correctness is handled these days it shows that many people who follow it so enthusiastically are also myopic in their understanding of the world around them – possibly due to the PC attitude itself being so lacking in balanced understanding of the world around.

    Any way, that is my opinion.

    1. I must say, this is one of
      I must say, this is one of the more interesting takes on autism that I have heard. It would seem to shed some light on the typical ‘autistic savant’ types that focus obsessively on a very few areas of expertise to the exclusion of all else. So, maybe it is not that they intentionally fixate on an idea because they find it particularly interesting or because they have some inner motivation to do so, but that it is simply all they can see. It seems it would require some outside motivation to be able to see the ‘big picture.’ Instead of a near/far imbalance, this seems more of a left/right imbalance: the ability to integrate a powerful understanding of certain details into any context in which they can exist meaningfully.

      1. Could be you are right
        I think there is a left right imbalance, and you may be right. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to make people aware that they are not perceiving everything that is available.

        I only wish others who are supposed to be experts were prepared to listen to those who live with autistic people all the time, rather than accept without question the suggestions given by their superiors. I remember that everyone who saw my son when he was 16 believed the most he would be was aspergers. They took their own impression as being the correct one, the only one possible, and ignored anything I or his father said. No wonder I despair sometimes of those who are in positions of authority and why I no longer trust them.

        But we have to understand that our inner brain perceives – sees – what is going on via the senses it obtains from the various inputs, and if the inner perception is not set up correctly then the whole internal image is distorted.

        Time for the experts to listen to those who live with autism, rather than their colleagues.

        I’m glad you found the concept of interest,

        1. this is very interesting Carol
          could there be any form of testing you could create that would further our understanding of this? Maybe imagery and sound with hearing. Or a mixture of one or all. I must admit I have no experience in this field at all but I can see that a new look at autism could be a way to maybe enhance their lives a little more or even find a “short circit” in the brain that may leed to amazing discoveries of how the brain really perceives reality. Providing all the external senses are in full working order, the brain must be the centre of any malfunction.
          Please correct me if I’m on the wrong track here, and I have tried to be as sensitive as possible.

          1. A little further explanation as I see it
            Those who are severely myopic in the eyes may understand better what I am trying to say.

            One example which was important to me was the incident where my family and I were at a swimming pool for the first time. My husband and son went into the males dressing area, and my daughter and I went into the females. It was when I had put my glasses into the locker that I realised how bad my vision was – if I wasn’t able to get lenses to work for me then I would be classed as partially sighted, possibly blind, as I can see so little, and rely on colour and movement to help me work out what is happening around me, and even then I have great trouble in recognising many things that are visible to everyone else. When I looked for the sign directing us to the pool, my daughter pointed it out but I just couldn’t see it, until I collected my glasses and looked again. The way this sign had been completely invisible to me made me realise that we do not necessarily see everything that others see. An important aspect of sight and perception. How can you perceive something if your senses/sensors don’t inform your inner mind of the facts?

            As the years have progressed I have realised I need to use my memory to help me get around. When I am in a new place I purposefully look carefully at what is around. Many people just look at their immediate surroundings, confident that if something different did arise they could easily recognise the fact and assimilate it into their mental image of their surroundings. For me, this doesn’t always work, as the glasses I wear make everything look smaller, and also the range of visble lense is narrower because anything outside the glasses is “dead” invisible space which I can’t see properly. This is what I call “tunnelled vision” but not the same as those who have even worse tunnelled visiobn in the eye itself.

            I have also the ability to look at the whole picture and also see “levels” within the image. Within my inner perception I can often see a pattern or template of events/related items which can be transposed, proportionally, on a higher or lower level. This is hard to explain, but it is something I have developed over many years. It helps me to understand things I may not otherwise understand because I don’t necessarily see them in quite the same way as others.

            When I was at school, around 14 yrs, I remember my maths teacher trying to teach me how to prove two different size triangles were of the same proportion. It took a long time for me to understand how this could be, but once the idea broke through, the concept was adaptable to many other situations in life around me, and this idea of a pattern or template began to make sense, and I formed other patterns based on the same premise – a large triangle can be exactly in proportion to another triangle even if it does have different length sizes to the other.

            When I found out my son was mentally disabled, I was told so little that I carefully observed him in various situations and tried to find answers that would help me teach him how to cope with life around him. It was these observations that made me realise how he thought (to some extent at least) and from there my husband and I, as well as others, attempted to help him.

            He would see a small spot on his hand as a big problem, not just because it would hurt him, but it looked big to him. A large area of dirt around his hand was invisible to him, even when it was pointed out.

            He had great trouble teething, the pain was excruciating, but when he had blisters on his foot which bled he was oblivious to them. I learned that his head and the tips of his fingers were very sensitive, whilst the rest of his body was lacking sensitivity. Perhaps it is to do with the way the nerves have connected to his brain?

            I know that I too have a very sensitive head, from the neck up, whilst the rest of my body is less sensitive. My husband could touch the end of a match or flame and not be hurt or feel any pain, but I cannot even feel the end of a recently dead match as the heat can still be easily felt by my fingers.

            It is said that we have the most nerves in our feet which are linked to the rest of our body, including the head. Perahps some of these nerves are in the wrong place?

            What has this to do with autism? It may be the reason why we find ourselves looking at things differently to everyone else, how it is possible to ignore certain things that to others are obvious, and generally, indicate why everyone is different.

            Autistic people are no different to others, only their perceptions based on the reception of their sensors via the nerves and outer sensors, and it is possible, I believe, to change the way the brain perceives things even if the person starts out on a normal average path of life.

            I am more interested in how the brain works, and I find it easier to consider the brain like a computer, and find allegorical similarities which can give a framework, and then look at the differences in the organs and the flesh from there.

            I don’t know if science can carry out ordinary experiments to prove my view, especially as people are varied in the intensity and other aspects of thinking and processing infornmation. It also has to be a long term observation session, and then perhaps it is possible to recognise certain signs that may at least suggest autism in some form. But do our “experts” have enough experience to comprehend and utilise this type of expertise? Somehow I don’t think so. Which is why I think they should listen to those “amateurs” who live with these autistic people day in day out for years and years.

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